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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Valentines Day, how do you participate?

What do you guys all do for Valentines Day?  It kind of feel like its a made up holiday where the price of flowers goes sky high!  Maybe I'm jaded, I don't like getting flowers, Id rather get the kind I can plant in my garden and enjoy them year after year. (Dont get me started on my gardens I had to leave behind when we moved it hurts my heart too much)  I am the kind of person who doesn't let Diabetes control what I eat (for the most part) so if I want to go buy a box of chocolate I don't let the fact that I have Diabetes stop me, but it does slow me down in the inability to inhale all of it at once like I did before I had Diabetes.  Or maybe I just like chocolate too much.

Yeah, I cant eat the whole box like you people with functioning pancreases can but I can have a couple of pieces at a time.

I just have to read the carbs, enter it into my pump and that's it.  I don't let my Diabetes stop me from enjoying a holiday or a special occasion, again for the most part.  

The only time Diabetes would get in the way was if I was feeling sick, had high blood sugar so therefore I need to eat a lower amount of carbs or if I was currently pregnant.  (I am not pregnant)  My Diabetic pregnancy was probably the hardest task I have completed in my life but so well worth it.  I swear my daughter is my heart living outside my body I love her so much.

I guess my Diabetes does limit me a little bit...since my pancreas doesnt create the proper hormones anymore I really dont feel full fast enough and I could eat a LOT more food than I do and I get hungry ALL. THE. TIME.  (I have too many stomach problems to "stomach" trying symlin and the scary long lasting lows it gave some people I know)

Hence the reason I carry this with me ALL. THE. TIME. It's full of ice water and I chug it all day long to keep me from feeling quite so hungry, to keep me from snacking and to help me maintain my weight.   We all know just how dang hard THAT task is. People actually say to me, "I cant believe you drink all that water, don't you have to go pee all the time."  Jeeze louise well duh I would hope it would make me pee all the time or there might be a problem.  It's 52 oz and I fill it several times a day at work and it keeps me from snacking non-stop.  So yeah I go pee all the dang time and it's my choice.

Going off on a tangent here: I don't know why the American culture has changed so much so that people feel they have the right to comment on any personal choice you make in your own life, your OWN life.  I simply cannot tell you how hard it can be to be a Diabetic woman with a child, the things people say to me are absolutely hurtful.  "Aren't you worried your child will become diabetic, you had a baby while being Diabetic (insert shocked looking face), oh my gosh bless your heart for having a baby with Diabetes and she's ok?"  Really?  Of course I'm WORRIED and YES she is ok?! wth, thanks for the reminder (my face has got to be just in utter shock when I hear these things, if you know me I am a tad bit expressive in my facial expressions)  Just keep your unneeded comments to yourselves....just because we have Diabetes doesn't mean we don't have feelings and sometimes that tough thick skin you all make us develop, doesn't always work all the time and our feelings get hurt. A lot of times it's by family members or close friends, the people we least expect to hear this from.  If you really want to discuss Diabetes with me please do some research first or let me explain my disease to you.

According to the American Diabetes Association:
Type 1 Diabetes Odds
Just who is at risk for developing type 1 diabetes? Here's a sampling of what Dr. Warram, a Lecturer in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, said is known:
  • If an immediate relative (parent, brother, sister, son or daughter) has type 1 diabetes, one's risk of developing type 1 diabetes is 10 to 20 times the risk of the general population; your risk can go from 1 in 100 to roughly 1 in 10 or possibly higher, depending on which family member has the diabetes and when they developed it.
  • If one child in a family has type 1 diabetes, their siblings have about a 1 in 10 risk of developing it by age 50.
  • The risk for a child of a parent with type 1 diabetes is lower if it is the mother — rather than the father — who has diabetes. "If the father has it, the risk is about 1 in 10 (10 percent) that his child will develop type 1 diabetes — the same as the risk to a sibling of an affected child," Dr. Warram says. On the other hand, if the mother has type 1 diabetes and is age 25 or younger when the child is born, the risk is reduced to 1 in 25 (4 percent) and if the mother is over age 25, the risk drops to 1 in 100 — virtually the same as the average American.  --(That's me)
  • If one of the parents developed type 1 diabetes before age 11, their child's risk of developing type 1 diabetes is somewhat higher than these figures and lower if the parent was diagnosed after their 11th birthday.  --(I was diagnosed at age 19)
  • About 1 in 7 people with type 1 has a condition known as type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome. In addition to type 1 diabetes, these people have thyroid disease, malfunctioning adrenal glands and sometimes other immune disorders. For those with this syndrome, the child's risk of having the syndrome, including type 1 diabetes, is 1 in 2, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Type 1 Diabetes: Your Child's Risk

In general, if you are a man with type 1 diabetes, the odds of your child developing diabetes are 1 in 17.
If you are a woman with type 1 diabetes and your child was born before you were 25, your child's risk is 1 in 25; if your child was born after you turned 25, your child's risk is 1 in 100.
Your child's risk is doubled if you developed diabetes before age 11. If both you and your partner have type 1 diabetes, the risk is between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4.
There is an exception to these numbers. About 1 in every 7 people with type 1 diabetes has a condition called type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome. In addition to having diabetes, these people also have thyroid disease and a poorly working adrenal gland. Some also have other immune system disorders. If you have this syndrome, your child's risk of getting the syndrome — including type 1 diabetes — is 1 in 2.
Researchers are learning how to predict a person's odds of getting diabetes. For example, most whites with type 1 diabetes have genes called HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4. If you and your child are white and share these genes, your child's risk is higher. (Suspect genes in other ethnic groups are less well studied. The HLA-DR7 gene may put African Americans at risk, and the HLA-DR9 gene may put Japanese at risk.)
Other tests can also make your child's risk clearer. A special test that tells how the body responds to glucose can tell which school-aged children are most at risk.
Another more expensive test can be done for children who have siblings with type 1 diabetes. This test measures antibodies to insulin, to islet cells in the pancreas, or to an enzyme called glutamic acid decarboxylase. High levels can indicate that a child has a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes.
- See more at: http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/genetics-of-diabetes.html#sthash.m2yINZim.dpuf
If you are a woman with type 1 diabetes and your child was born before you were 25, your child's risk is 1 in 25; if your child was born after you turned 25, your child's risk is 1 in 100. - See more at: http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/genetics-of-diabetes.html#sthash.m2yINZim.dpuf

Just because a person has Diabetes does not give anyone the right to ask us about our own personal lives, the food we choose to eat, having kids or not having kids, get married or not get married or any other life choice.  I don't go around telling overweight people that they shouldn't eat this or that because it will make them fatter, I don't go around telling people who have had a heart attack what to eat, I don't tell every person I see smoking that smoking will kill them or give them Cancer, I don't tell people who have had Cancer/heart attack/whatever chronic illness or disease that they shouldn't get married/have kids/eat this or that...etc etc.  Please just think before you speak, if you had (insert medical condition) would you want other strangers/outsiders/family/friends telling you what to do with your own personal life choices? I doubt it, its hurtful and the pain is long lasting.  What if you told someone they shouldn't have kids with Diabetes and they were currently pregnant and had not told you yet or that they had always dreamed of having a family, you crush their heart when you say these things.

Please think first, speak second.  I try to live by this so very hard just because I know all the things that have been said to me in my lifetime really do hurt and every time I see the person who said that hurtful thing to me, that's all I can think of when I see their face. --End of tangent.  =D

Sorry for the spin off but Holidays seem to be the most common time when people feel the need to tell those of us living with Diabetes how we should live and what we should eat. Thankfully this year I made it through almost every holiday gathering without any rude or hurtful comments. 

So what do you all do for Valentines day? Or do you just treat it like any other holiday and fully participate in all the candy giving, receiving and eating?

Some suggestions I am getting from friends are: Flowers, Jewelry, sugar free cheesecake, DO NOT buy sugar free candy--it makes a lot of people have serious G.I. issues, go out to dinner with friends/husband/significant other, and the best one yet I was reminded of the Spare a Rose campaign.  I will make a new post dedicated to the Spare a Rose information.


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